Sunday, July 29, 2012

I've been home for a couple of days & have had time to think about all that God did on this journey to Haiti. I plan on doing a blog entry of the day by day stuff we did in Haiti but for now I will give you a brief overview.
I met my team members a week before we were to go on the journey & from the start it was evident that it was a team put together by God! We worked so well together and by the end of the trip we were like family. We were a small team of 5. But our team of 5 with the help of JoyHouse staff & members of the church were able to see a total of 82 salvations (8 at church, 2 at first morning of preventative medical clinic, 15 at second morning of medical clinic, & 57 at three days of VBS..)!! We helped do two preventative medical clinics (saw 40 patients at the first one we did & 80 patients at the second one). We hosted VBS for at risk street kids. We expected to have between 75-90 kids. We had an average of 150 street kids each of the three days & 50 church kids each of the three days come (for a total of 200 kids). So with the stats about VBS & number of salvations...1/3 of our VBS street kids came to know Christ. It was only in Christ alone that these things were accomplished!!!
God also taught me many things through this journey (which I will detail in another blogpost)..One thing I know for sure is that God is not dead!! He is alive!! Without Him nothing would have been accomplished & we would not have seen His glory put on display the way we did with Him blowing our minds away!!

I have put many pics up on facebook & will try to post the rest over the course of the next few days AND will fill you in on other details of the trip over the next few days.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Have you ever had one of those weeks,weekends, days, etc where it feels like God is pounding something into you? The same lesson comes up at church in the sermon, in your quiet times, in conversations... Definitely happened to me this last week (and weekend.)
Every year (and this happens at other times as well) during the time surround the 4th of July, I am always reminded to be thankful for the freedom I have to choose to worship God (because others around the world do not have that freedom) and to be thankful for the men and women who fight (or have fought ) for that freedom I have. This year, however, the Lord brought it a little closer to home and asked me "What am I doing with that freedom?" This weekend I got to go visit my friend in her hometown. (side note: I enjoyed that time!! We swam, ate together, went to the park with her kids, and got to do some catching up.) At her church this morning the sermon was on the freedom of Christ according to the apostle Paul. One thing that really resonated with me was: How am I using my freedom in Christ to glorify God? I am free to worship, share the Gospel with others, go to church...the list goes on. During my quiet time before church this morning I was reflecting on the same concept...is what I'm doing with my time/energy/possessions glorifying Christ? During my driving time this weekend, the Lord kept bringing that to mind as well. He kept asking me am I doing everything I can to glorify Him in every part of my life or am I holding back in any areas?
Another thing the Lord taught me on Saturday during my quiet time on Saturday was that He is in control & I need to just walk by faith. There are several areas of my life that I layed at Jesus' feet on Saturday and He remind of me the verse in Psalms that says "Be still and know that I am God." I need to just recognize that He is God and has everything under control.
This ties together in that in areas of my life that I struggle with, I can glorify Christ by recognizing His control over everything and I can use those things to glorify Him by sharing with others what He has done for me.

*** look for a blog post in the next couple of days in what God is already doing in & through my journey to Haiti that is less than two weeks away now ;-)